Monday, March 03, 2014

Japan And Israel Had Better Start Buying More Ships, Tanks And Airplanes

If the Syria debacle hadn't convinced them already, the Ukraine Surprise certainly must have. Anyone facing an existential threat from a neighboring country had better not rely on the US for protection. With the DoD drawing down forces as fast as possible and the Washington establishment living in an Ivy League faculty lounge bubble, trusting the US for your safety and existence is a fool's game.

2 comments:

I'm kind of puzzled as to what, exactly, you think US troops, armor, ships, and aircraft could do in the Ukraine situation that wouldn't lead directly to World War III.

Sending actual US troops into Crimea would amount to assaulting the *primary base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet*. I don't care how big our army and navy are, this strikes me as massively unwise, and I don't really see how the Russians could react to this other than by letting loose with everything they've got.

And this would be in support of Ukraine? A country that is not allied with us or any of our allies, and in fact has been, up to this moment, strongly allied with the Russians?

Now, if you want to argue that Obama should keep his threats to himself if he doesn't intend to follow up on them, fine. But suggesting that going into full-up combat "toe to toe with the Rooskies" is anything other than a mutual suicide pact strikes me as insane.

What could we do? Absolutely nothing right now and Putin knows this as well as he knows that even if we could, we wouldn't. We had bases in Iraq about 700 miles from the scene which we have given up in exchange for ... nothing, geopolitically. We've also flubbed every test of resolve there's been, showing the world we won't do anything even when possible.

Step by step, we've emboldened the guy to the point where we were probably not even a major factor in his calculations.

No, I wouldn't go to war over Crimea. However, I'd hope that it wasn't just one more in an unbroken series of humiliations.